All 15 Uses of
speculate
in
David Copperfield
- I had plenty to think of, therefore, besides my mind running continually on the kind of place I was going to — which was an awful speculation.
Chpt 4-6 (definition 1) *speculation = line-of-thought leading to guesses
- I can recollect, indeed, to have speculated, at odd times, on the possibility of my not being taught any more, or cared for any more; and growing up to be a shabby, moody man, lounging an idle life away, about the village; as well as on the feasibility of my getting rid of this picture by going away somewhere, like the hero in a story, to seek my fortune:
Chpt 10-12 (definition 1)speculated = thought
- These were few enough, to be sure; but as we always fell back upon Blood, she had as wide a field for abstract speculation as her nephew himself.
Chpt 25-27 (definition 1)
- …an accidental building, never designed for the purpose, leased by the registrars for their Own private emolument, unsafe, not even ascertained to be fire-proof, choked with the important documents it held, and positively, from the roof to the basement, a mercenary speculation of the registrars, who took great fees from the public, and crammed the public's wills away anyhow and anywhere, having no other object than to get rid of them cheaply.
Chpt 31-33 (definition 2)speculation = investment
- I could only repeat this daring speculation with the same kind of feeling with which I had repeated the preceding question.
Chpt 34-36 (definition 1)speculation = thought
- If I had happily possessed no knowledge of the place, and had seen it often in that changeless state, I should have pleased my fancy with many ingenious speculations, I dare say.
Chpt 46-48 (definition 1)speculations = thoughts or guesses
- In another, the ground was cumbered with rusty iron monsters of steam-boilers, wheels, cranks, pipes, furnaces, paddles, anchors, diving-bells, windmill-sails, and I know not what strange objects, accumulated by some speculator, and grovelling in the dust, underneath which — having sunk into the soil of their own weight in wet weather — they had the appearance of vainly trying to hide themselves.†
Chpt 46-48 (definition 2)
- Sometimes, the speculation came into my thoughts, What might have happened, or what would have happened, if Dora and I had never known each other?
Chpt 46-48 (definition 1)speculation = wondering
- As we walked into town to post it, Traddles and I held a long conference, and launched into a number of speculations, which I need not repeat.
Chpt 49-51 (definition 1)speculations = thoughts
- Such speculations as it engendered within me I kept to myself, and those were faint enough.
Chpt 49-51 (definition 1)
- ...at a period when Mr. W. had launched into imprudent and ill-judged speculations, and may not have had the money, for which he was morally and legally responsible, in hand;
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)speculations = risky investments
- …fraudulently obtained or withheld from Mr. W. himself, on pretence of such speculations or otherwise;
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2) *
- I stood in a window, and looked across the ancient street at the opposite houses, recalling how I had watched them on wet afternoons, when I first came there; and how I had used to speculate about the people who appeared at any of the windows, and had followed them with my eyes up and down stairs, while women went clicking along the pavement in pattens, and the dull rain fell in slanting lines, and poured out of the water-spout yonder, and flowed into the road.
Chpt 58-60 (definition 1)speculate = think
- I had been thinking of it, sweeping over those mountain wastes of snow in Switzerland, then inaccessible to any human foot; and had been speculating which was the lonelier, those solitary regions, or a deserted ocean.
Chpt 61-62 (definition 1)speculating = wondering
- I am afraid to speculate on what it is.
Chpt 61-62 (definition 1)speculate = think or guess
Definitions:
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(1) (speculate as in: don't know, but I'll speculate) to think about, wonder, guess or theorize with much uncertainty
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(2) (speculate as in: speculate in the stock market) to take a risk for profit--typically a risky investment